UNITED STATES NEWS

Justice Kavanaugh seeks to dispel the notion that the Supreme Court is partisan

Jul 13, 2023, 1:41 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — Justice Brett Kavanaugh pointed to the mixed President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief program.

“The court is an institution of law. It’s an institution of law not of politics, not of partisanship,” Kavanaugh said at a judicial conference in Minnesota, in the first public remarks by a justice since the court recessed for the summer late last month.

The federal law aimed at keeping Native American children with Native families.

And the term was marked by other notable surprises, rejecting conservative positions in a deportation priorities.

“We have lived up, in my estimation, to deciding cases based on law and not based on partisan affiliation and partisanship,” Kavanaugh said. “We don’t caucus in separate rooms. We don’t meet separately. We’re not sitting on different sides of the aisle at an oral argument. … We work as a group of nine.”

Speaking to an audience of judges, attorneys and court personnel from the 8th Circuit, which stretches from Minnesota and the Dakotas south to Arkansas, Kavanaugh said he didn’t fully appreciate until he joined the court how much time the nine justices spend alone with each other.

He estimated that they eat lunch together around 65 times a year.

“And the rule at lunch is you can’t talk about work,” he said. “It’s a good rule. … It builds relationships and friendships and then when we have tough cases — and we only really have tough cases — you have a reservoir of good will toward each of the other people.”

Kavanaugh said he was warmly welcomed in his first term in 2018 by then-Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, who were part of the court’s liberal wing. He also praised his working relationships with the two newest justices, conservative Amy Coney Barrett and liberal Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kavanaugh, who was the justice most often in the majority this term in divided cases, said the Supreme Court hears 60 to 70 cases a term and that only a relative few might get most of the attention. But he said there are lots of 9-0 decisions, and there can also be a lot of 7-2 and 6-3 decisions.

“All sorts of different lineups,” he said. “And so I might be working with Sonia Sotomayor on the Andy Warhol case, while we disagree on a case on the competition clause. We’re not going to let our relationship where we’re working together on one suffer just because we disagree on the other. And that’s going on with all nine of us on a daily basis.”

Kavanaugh only briefly mentioned Chief Justice John Roberts said in May that the justices were continuing to work on that as a group.

“That’s accurate,” he said. “I’m not going to add anything to what the chief justice has said on that topic.”

Roberts offered no specifics at the time, and the justices have not adopted an ethics code.

Kavanaugh said people getting upset when the high court makes difficult decisions comes with the territory. He said the best the justices can do is try to be consistent, clearly explain their reasoning, and try to show that they actually are working as a team of nine on difficult cases instead of caucusing on a partisan basis.

“You shouldn’t be in this line of work if you don’t like criticism,” he said. “Because you’re going to get it. And you’re going to get a lot of it.”

United States News

Associated Press

Detroit on track to record fewest homicides since 1966, officials say

The city of Detroit is on-track to see its fewest yearly homicides in nearly six decades, officials said Monday. Through Nov. 30, Detroit had recorded 228 homicides — an 18% decrease over the same period last year. In 2018, Detroit had 261 homicides, the fewest number since 1966, when there were 214 homicides. Officials credit […]

31 minutes ago

Associated Press

More than $950,000 raised for Palestinian student paralyzed after being shot in Vermont

More than $950,000 has been raised for the recovery of one of the three college students of Palestinian descent who was shot in Vermont and is currently paralyzed from the chest down, according to a GoFundMe page set up by his family. One of the bullets that hit Hisham Awartani on Nov. 25 is lodged […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

Remains found in Indiana in 1982 identified as those of Wisconsin woman who vanished at age 20

RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — Human remains found in rural Indiana in 1982 have been identified as those of a Wisconsin woman who was 20 when she vanished more than four decades ago, authorities said. The remains are those of Connie Lorraine Christensen, who was from the Madison, Wisconsin-area community of Oregon, said Lauren Ogden, chief […]

3 hours ago

Associated Press

Judge drops felony charges against ex-elections official in Virginia

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has dismissed felony charges against a former county elections official accused of misconduct in the 2020 election, a decision made after state prosecutors said a key witness changed his story. At the prosecutors’ request, the judge on Friday dismissed a felony charge of corrupt conduct and one for […]

5 hours ago

Philadelphia police officers outside of the Macy's in Center City after reports of an alleged stabb...

Associated Press

Man suspected of shoplifting stabs 2 security guards at Philadelphia store, killing 1

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man who had tried to steal merchandise from a department store in Philadelphia returned 15 minutes later and stabbed two security guards, killing one and injuring the other, city police said. The attack at the Macy’s store occurred shortly after 11 a.m. Monday. Security guards saw the man attempting to steal […]

5 hours ago

Associated Press

Man suspected of killing 4, including a 1-year-old, at a Dallas home kills self during police chase

DALLAS (AP) — A man suspected of killing four people, including a 1-year-old boy, and injuring a 15-year-old girl in a shooting at a Dallas home fatally shot himself during a chase with law enforcement, police said Monday. Byron Carillo, 21, fled the home after the shooting late Sunday afternoon and then stole a vehicle, […]

6 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

(KTAR News Graphic)...

KTAR launches online holiday auction benefitting Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley

KTAR is teaming up with The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley for a holiday auction benefitting thousands of Valley kids.

Follow @KTAR923...

Valley residents should be mindful of plumbing ahead of holidays

With Halloween in the rear-view and more holidays coming up, Day & Night recommends that Valley residents prepare accordingly.

...

Midwestern University

Midwestern University: innovating Arizona health care education

Midwestern University’s Glendale Campus near Loop 101 and 59th Avenue is an established leader in health care education and one of Arizona’s largest and most valuable health care resources.

Justice Kavanaugh seeks to dispel the notion that the Supreme Court is partisan